KVm A SnORT BIOGRAPHY OF 



But as now neither lover nor student am I, 

 (I 'm a Christian, I hope, but I wish not to die,) 

 So nor books, nor a mistress, nor zeal have inspireJ 

 My muse to commend what she ne'er has admired. 



Yet as mind gives a comfort to deserts and dens, 

 Makes a turnpike of bogs, and a garden of glens ; 

 So affection, kind chemist ! I feel, can convert 

 To the sweetest of sweets what I thought to be dirt. 



Be then welcome, dear Selbome, as welcome can be, 

 As the primrose of May, or the hawthorn to me ; 

 For 'tis there (may they ever be blest from above !) 

 Dwell a daughter and son, and the children I love." * 



As Selborne is approached from Alton, the beauty of its 

 /alley is seen as it bursts suddenly into view, and affords a 

 prospect of great rural beauty. A foot-bridge is thrown 

 across a deep ra^dne of rocky bank, at the bottom of 

 which a little streamlet runs over a road, which is at once 

 its channel and the carriage-way to the village. From 

 this spot the precipitous beechen hangers may be seen, so 

 often referred to by Mr. White ; the white tower of the 

 village church ; the snug parsonage, and the pretty cottages, 

 sprinkled over the landscape. 



Farm-houses, with their barns and straw-yards, hop-lands, 

 and corn-fields, and what is seldom seen in these degenerate 

 days, a may-pole, add to the beauty of the scenery. 



And here I may be allowed to quote a passage or two 

 from an article which appeared some years ago in the New 

 Monthly Magazine, on the village of Selborne, wi-itten by 

 one who appears to have visited it out of pure love for the 

 memory of Mr. "White, and from the pleasure he had derived 

 from his wi'itings. 



" The traveller who would ' ^dew fair Selborne aright,' 

 Rhould humour the caprices of our fickle climate, and visit 



* [These lines were wi'itten by Mr. Gabriel Tahourdin,] 



